Supreme Court of Georgia

THE CHAIRMAN OF THE SUPREME COURT OF GEORGIA REACTED ON PACKAGE OF BILLS INITIATED BY MINISTRY OF JUSTICE

Published: 03/14/2014

On March 13, 2014 the briefing was held at the Supreme Court of Georgia, where the Chairman of the Supreme Court of Georgia Mr. Konstantin Kublashvili evaluated the package of bill initiated by Ministry of Justice according to which the number of the Supreme Court Judges shall be determined by the number of twenty, and also, the term and the principles of admissibility criteria of the cassation claim will be changed.

The Chairman of the Supreme Court stated that the bill contains a lot of risk in terms of judicial independence.

“When someone intends to implement any changes in the judicial system he or she must consult with the Chairman of the Supreme Court and the Plenum. Here we have three important issues: First - the number of Supreme Court Judges shall be increased; the Second - it is the principles of case admissibility criteria; and the Third - the time limits of case examination shall be decreased from 6 months to 4 months. What are the threats contained in these changes? The number of the Supreme Court Judges determines the Supreme Court itself and to follow of the principle is even necessary in order to protect the court system from interference of other authorities. If we refer this issue to the Parliament, this will create a huge threat to the independence of judiciary, as the Parliament will be able to say after some period that the number of judges in the Supreme Court shall not be 20, but 15. It determines the number of judges without any consultation with the Supreme Court and determination of the number of judges will remain within its authority. This is a huge threat for the independence of the judiciary,” - stated Mr. Konstantin Kublashvili.

According to the Chairman of the Supreme Court, it is necessary that determination of number of the Supreme Court Judges to remain within the competency of the Supreme Court.

"To refer the competency of determination of number of the Supreme Court Judges shall be defined only by the Constitution. With this the Supreme Court will have the high level of protection from government interference,” - said the Chairman.

As to the amendments on the case admissibility criteria initiated by the Ministry of Justice, Mr. Kublashvili said:

“The standards of modern world are that the Supreme Courts work with the admissibility principles, because the Supreme Court is a cassation court, and it examines the cases precisely in this manner. The main function is to issue the most important interpretations on specific legal norms. The cases that are examined in accordance with the laws and practices by the first and second instance courts, they are not examined by the Supreme Court, because the lower courts decisions are done legally correctly. The Supreme Court shall pay attention to those cases, where the legal provisions are not well interpreted and where there is no practice established.”

As to the initiative of the Ministry of Justice concerning reduction of time limits for case examination, the Chairman of the Supreme Court stated, that in none of the courts of the democratic judiciary system no questions are arose regarding the time limits of case examination, for example, in France the medium term of case examination are 9 months, in Georgia we have 6 months. Reduction of the time limits up to 4 months means to examine the cases according to the conveyor system. Such approach is unacceptable for us”, - said Mr. KublaSvili.

The Chairman of the Supreme Court calls on the government to respect the court system and the issues that relate to the judiciary shall be displayed for the discussion only after the consultation with the court.